Good For What Ails You

In the 28 or so hours since I picked up the last two weeks' worth of comics, I've read exactly two of them. Each was almost certainly the best comic to come out in its respective week, and they'll probably end up being the two finest comics released in the month of February 2009. Beyond that, though, they also provide welcome relief from a couple of just-completed Grant Morrison-scripted "epics."

The first is Batman # 686, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Andy Kubert and Scott Williams. Many fans, including yours truly, have been eagerly awaiting this comic ever since its existence was announced last Summer. Gaiman, world-famous as the genius behind the Sandman series of comics as well as such fantasy novels as American Gods, Anansi Boys, Stardust, Coraline, Neverwhere and others, does very little comic work anymore. He's simply too busy with books and films these days, and so anything comic-related that he's involved with is instantly big news. In this case, he's writing a 2-part tale called "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?"

Coming on the heels of Morrison's uneven "Batman R.I.P." storyline, Gaiman's tale is essentially a retrospective on the character, in the form of a funeral. The choice of titles immediately suggests parallels to Alan Moore's great coda to the pre-Crisis Superman, which was entitled, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" Generally-speaking, name-checking something like that, in this day and age, would be pure poison for DC, since nothing in their current output is likely to hold a candle to what Moore was doing in his heyday. However, if anyone could possibly meet that challenge, Neil Gaiman is it. And if the first part is anything to judge by, he may just pull it off!

The story is narrated, in a sense, by a disembodied Batman who's witnessing events in a city that "is Gotham... but not right." He's being lead through this experience by another bodiless voice, the identity of which isn't revealed in Part 1. What they're both observing is a gathering of family, friends and enemies, all coming together to pay their last respects - or not! - to the man in the coffin: Batman himself! (What? You were expecting John Locke?)

We see a range of classic interpretations of the Dark Knight as the funeral-goers tell stories from their past encounters with him. Catwoman paints a very Golden Age picture of romance between her and the Batman, reminiscent of the old pre-Crisis Earth-2 outcome that saw the two marry and produce a daughter (who'd grow up to become the Huntress). Alfred Pennyworth portrays Bruce Wayne as a delusional spirit for whom the butler had to arrange adversaries in order to rouse him out of his brain-addled depression.

As these stories-within-a-story play out, the not-quite narrator quizzes his equally-insubstantial companion as to what these events mean, since they contradict each other and feel wrong. My favourite line comes on the last page, when Batman asks, "Are you death?" and she replies, "I don't think death is a person, Bruce." That, of course, is a nod by Gaiman to one of his most famous creations: the young, goth incarnation of Death, sister to Dream (the Sandman).

The lines that follow are also worth noting:

Him: "Then tell me who you are. Tell me what's going on."
Her: "You're the world's greatest detective, Bruce. Why don't you figure it out?"

Just like that, Gaiman lets us all heave a huge sigh of relief on two fronts, considering the "Morrison Effect" that we're currently under: 1) If even Batman's stumped, then no wonder we're all so clueless as to what it all means. 2) With that last challenge thrown down, it's pretty clear that Batman's now on the case, meaning that answers are forthcoming! Tune back in next issue, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel! Pure comic gold!

As cleansing as Batman # 686 was of "Batman R.I.P.", Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds # 3 performs the same service for Final Crisis. Whereas the main Final Crisis series became increasingly incomprehensible to many comic fans (even me!), this Geoff Johns/George Perez/Scott Koblish production plies more familiar ground: it's a king-sized, ass-kicking throw-down between the nastiest mess of 31st century supervillains and 3 different versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes as you're ever likely to see... even if you lived a thousand years! There are still undoubtedly some accessibility issues for people not at all familiar with the Legion franchise, but at least Johns and the artists service the rest of us well.

This is the proverbial "geekasm" issue, as we get Legion dopplegangers galore, some huge fight scenes, a shot of Superman's hand being pierced by Superboy-Prime's heat vision, and countless other moments that made me stop and just admire the scenery. There's also a big "return" on the final page, finally explaining what the "Lightning Saga" was all about, back in the pages of Justice League of America and Justice Society of America. Johns also attempts to straighten out continuity between the various Legion incarnations over the years, but I'm not entirely sold on those ideas until I see where the final two issues take us. Overall, though, it was one of the most thrilling reads I've had in ages.

Where I re-read each issue of Final Crisis in order to increase my understanding of it, with this mini-series I want to return to it again and again just to re-live the thrill a few more times.

If only more of my weekly comics came close to the level of craft on display in these two gems. At $3.99 each, they not only provided more pages for the money, but they'd also have been a bargain at twice the price!